MACEP has been active making our voices heard while legislation is being crafted to combat the opioid epidemic. As part of our advocacy, MACEP leadership hosted Governor Baker at our January 26th board meeting. At this meeting, MACEP conveyed to the Governor that we are allies in the effort to curb the opioid epidemic, and that the emergency physicians of MA are determined to be leaders in bringing this crisis to an end. We had a positive meeting with the Governor, where we articulated our important role as front-line providers in responding to this crisis.

We communicated our individual and collective efforts to combat the crisis at each of our hospitals. We also used this meeting as an opportunity to convey the magnitude of our own crisis with respect to the boarding of patients with mental health and substance abuse disorders. We made it clear that the lack of mental health parity and the prolonged boarding of patients in our EDs is an intolerable situation and that to end it we need the Governor's support.

We thank the Governor for his efforts, for listening to our members, and we intend this as the first of many interactions in an effort to collaborate on solving the opioid epidemic and bring an end to behavioral health boarding.